Sensitivity to varying gains and losses: The role of self- discrepancies and event framing.

Abstract

Three studies psychophysically measured people's discrimination among different sizes of monetary net gains or net losses. Participants imagined either gains or nonlosses (i.e., net gains) or losses or nongains (i.e., net losses). Participants discriminated more when the identical event was framed as the presence (gains and losses) versus the absence (nonlosses and nongains) of an outcome, presumably because the latter is harder to represent. Discrimination was enhanced when the motivational features of the imagined event were either both the same as or both different from a person's selfdiscrepancy. Discrimination was reduced when only one of the motivational features was different. A model of excitations, inhibitions, and disinhibitions between mental representation is suggested to account for these findings. When people perceive an increase in the loudness of a tone as a result of an increase in its sound pressure, their sensory discriminates between these two physical sound pressures. They experience this increase in stimulus intensity as an increase in loudness. A highly discriminating sensory system tracks the slightest variation of stimulus intensity. It is sensitive to differences in stimulus intensity, such as sound pressure differences. In contrast, a nondiscriminat ing system does not detect variations in stimulus intensity, even when they are fairly large. Such a system is insensitive to differences in stimulus intensity. Different sensory systems can have different discriminations or one system can have different discriminations as a function of specific variables. Positive and negative events can also have different stimulus intensities. For example, when people perceive a difference in the of two monetary losses, such as the difference between a $50 loss and a $60 loss, their affective apparatus discriminates between two stimulus intensities (here money